Zoey And The Nice Guy (Big Girl Panties #1) (2 page)

Addy gawked. “I never even thought of that.”

“That’s because you live with competent parental units. Be grateful.”

Addy nodded in adamant agreement.
 

They moved back into the living room to huddle around Maya. Later that night, after she’d calmed, they discussed her options. She called Damon and broke the news to him over the phone. He didn’t yell or anything and after she hung up, her eyes closed in relief.

The next day he showed up with a cheap ring he’d bought at the Dollar Store. He got on one knee in front of Maya and proposed. Zoey watched in horror as Maya tearfully accepted. There was nothing to be done. Maya loved him and refused to hear reason.

The next Monday at school, Kellen Bradley came up to Zoey, grinning like a damn fool. “How crazy is it?” he said. “I’m gonna be an uncle.”

Zoey cocked her fist and punched him in the face. She got in-school suspension and was more than willing to pay the price.
 

8 years later

“I’m going to kill him. He’s dead. He’s so fucking dead!” At six on a Saturday morning, Zoey paced the living room of Maya’s two-bedroom shack in the shitty part of town. In the background,
The Island of Misfit Toys
played, tinny from the bad speakers of a very old television. Zoey glared at the Claymation Rudolph. She picked up the remote and turned it off.

Addy shot her a frustrated look. Maya was in her bedroom packing her things. Maya’s kids were in their room, doing the same. “Pull yourself together. This isn’t what she needs.”

Zoey choked down as much of her rage as she could, but her vision blurred with tears. “As soon as I saw her face….” She couldn’t finish the sentence. The words vanished into a place of blind pain and fury.

“I know. But this is it. It’s over. And, right now, you and I need to—“

A sharp scream came from the back. Addy hurried away. “I told you not to try and lift that bag yourself,” she said as she disappeared down the hall.

Zoey stared after her, lost in her own pain. Eight years of watching a woman she considered a sister trapped in an abusive relationship…and now it was finally over. An ending and a very rough beginning.

She felt a tug at the hem of her sweater. She looked down to see five-year-old Sophie, who shared her mother’s wide, green eyes, staring up at her. Zoey smiled and stroked her hair.

“Will Santa be able to find us?” the little girl asked.

“Absolutely. I’m sending him a letter to let him know where you are. It won’t be a problem at all.”

Sophie smiled softly and then ran back to her bedroom.
 

There was a knock at the door. Zoey hoped to God it was Damon because she had her legally licensed gun in a holster at her waist and if he so much as laid a hand on her, she was all ready to defend herself with lethal force.

But it wasn’t Damon. Instead, she was greeted with the ingenuous smile of Damon’s baby brother. Kellen could not be more different from Damon. He was perpetually kind and generous. Just an all-around sweetheart.

Zoey found him disgusting.
 

He might have the most perfectly sculpted shoulders you ever saw and a smile that could weaken the knees of even the most stalwart man-eater; he might have gorgeous, sun-kissed hair and eyes you could swim in; and maybe his voice resonated in a deep baritone that vibrated down to your toes—but he was related to the wrong guy; an unforgivable sin, in Zoey’s mind.

“Hi, Zoey,” he said cheerfully, as though she wasn’t scowling at him. “What are you doing here?”

She opened her mouth to tell him to fuck off, but the kids came barreling in. “Uncle Kellen!” they squealed, and jumped into his arms. He swung Sophie onto his hip and slung his arm around Matthew. He kicked the door closed behind him.

After Damon and Maya had gotten engaged, Kellen had started hanging around their little group. She’d already hated him for his relationship to Damon. But when he started worming his way into everyone’s affections, her hate took a solid hold, becoming a permanent thing.
 

“Get out of here, Kellen,” she said. “She’s leaving him, and she’s not coming back.”

His smile disappeared altogether and the man actually looked perplexed. He sat Sophie on her feet.
 

“I know they had some problems. Damon crashed at my house and wouldn’t stop crying about it. But he loves her. And she loves him. I really think we should stay out of their business.”

“God, you’re just as bad as he is! Go fuck yourself, Kellen!”
 

His eyebrows shot up, and he quickly covered the kids’ ears, pressing their little heads to his hips. “Look, I don’t know what I did to piss you off this time, but this is Maya and Damon’s business, not yours. So let’s just get out of their way and let them work this out.”

“How can you say that? You probably think he was justified in what he did, don’t you?”

He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “The fact is, you’ve only got one side of the story and your own bias. You don’t know what he’s going through.”

She fisted her hands as heat rushed to her cheeks. Was the son-of-a-bitch actually suggesting there was a good reason for Damon’s beating his wife nearly to death?

Kellen had the good sense to look nervous. But, he was hiding behind children, so she couldn’t hurt him. Yet.
 

Just then the back bedroom door opened and Maya came out. Addison was rolling her suitcase with one hand and supporting Maya around her back with the other. Maya’s left eye was swelled shut and there was bruising along her right cheekbone. Her lips were cut and swollen and her nose broken. Addison had apparently cleaned the blood away.
 

Kellen’s expression changed. His eyes went wide, his mouth hung open, all the color completely drained from his face. And then he closed his mouth and turned a little green. “My God,” he whispered.
 

He hadn’t known. He moved past Zoey and scooped Maya into his arms. Maya didn’t object, which was annoying, since she’d argued with Zoey and Addy all morning about not needing any help. “I’m happy to take her to the hospital,” Kellen said. “If you guys can take care of the kids.”

“She won’t let us take her to the hospital,” Zoey said.
 

“She’s going to the hospital. Aren’t you, Sis?”

Maya just buried her face in his chest and sobbed. Zoey couldn’t believe it. She decided to hate Kellen just a little more, even though it was awfully nice the way he was taking care of Maya.

“Thank you,” Addy said. “She wouldn’t listen to us. We’ll take the kids over to Zoey’s.”

He nodded and moved toward the front door, cradling Maya like and infant. Zoey hurried to open it for him.
 

“Come on,” Addy said in her husky, ever-calm voice, “let’s get the kids out of here.” She turned to them and stroked the backs of their heads. “Aunt Zoey’s been DVRing cartoons all morning. Let’s go see what there is to watch.” She helped them into their coats and boots while Zoey loaded their bags into her car.
 

They convoyed to Zoey’s house with Addy following in the Mercedes that her parents had bought her on her birthday. It always looked so out of place, parked in Zoey’s driveway.

Zoey’s house wasn’t much, but it was hers. She didn’t resent Addy her rich parents, but she took pride in her own hard work and self-reliance. She’d graduated a year early and had taken as many tests for college credits as she could. In the end, college only took her two years, after which she’d gotten her CPA. Because she’d already established a relationship with an accounting firm doing internships, there was a job waiting for her. She’d graduated debt free thanks to scholarships and two part-time jobs. After two years as a junior accountant at Haverty Morris Accounting Firm, she’d saved up enough for a down payment and applied for a home loan.

Three bedrooms and two bathrooms with another bathroom in the basement. She’d had the house remodeled and updated, with bamboo floors all the way throughout, a new roof, and new appliances. And the furniture…she’d gone all out for good furniture.
 

Each bedroom was fully furnished, though she didn’t have any family to speak of. She had her friends, though, and she always wanted them to have a comfortable place to stay. In her basement was some gym equipment—an elliptical and some free weights. On the other side was a wrap-around couch facing a huge TV with two game consoles.
 

The house was located in an older neighborhood with plenty of space between neighbors. In the summer, the trees provided nice privacy barriers. But being December, the landscape stood stark and naked.
 

Either way, it was her little slice.
 

They pulled into the driveway and Zoey parked in her garage. She had the kids with her in the back seat. She helped them out of the car and into her house. They hovered in the laundry room, which separated the garage from the kitchen and dining area. Sophie hugged her teddy bear to her chest, and Matthew hugged Sophie to his side.
 

“Come on in,” Zoey said. “Make yourselves at home.”

It was a silly thing to say. They were children. And they’d just had their home ripped apart.
 

Addy came in the front door. She was only a little better with children than Zoey. “Hey, guys,” she said, “come on in the living room. Aunt Zoey’s got Pop Tarts, and we’ll get you hooked up with some cartoons.”

“Do you have
Frozen
?” Sophie asked, as Matthew led her to one of the sofas.
 

“Oh, my God, I do have
Frozen
!” Zoey said, hurrying to her DVD collection. “I love this movie.” She set it up and then went to the kitchen for Pop Tarts. After she’d toasted them so they were warm and gooey in the middle, she poured two glasses of milk and took it all into the living room on a tray. She sat the tray on the coffee table, and the kids knelt before it, never taking their eyes off the TV screen.

She and Addy grabbed coffee and then slumped at the dining table. “I’m glad Kellen came by,” Addy said. “She really needed to go to the hospital.”

“I think she would have once we’d gotten her kids settled.”

“It’s good she trusts him. Maybe he’ll be an asset.”

“I doubt it. He’s completely dim. Soon as he talks to Damon, he’ll be back to siding with him.”

Addy huffed and rolled her eyes. “You’ve had it out for him forever. What’s the deal?”

“He’s a douche. I don’t see why everyone doesn’t hate him.”

“He is the farthest thing from a douche. He’s the nicest guy in town.”

Zoey shrugged and sipped her coffee.
 

Addy sighed. “Those poor kids.”

“It’s a rough road, but they’ll be better for it. This was a long time coming, but I’m proud of her for finally taking this step.”

She watched as the kids, covered in crumbs from their Pop Tarts, huddled together on the couch watching the movie.

“You’ll have to wait outside, Sir.”

The nurse looked at him like he was the one who’d nearly beaten the life out of Maya. But he was too devastated to be offended. Maya gave him a brave nod. He squeezed her hand and left the exam room. There was a small waiting room just down the hall and around the corner. He sat in an empty chair and pressed his face into his hands.

The world was a different place to him. In the moment he saw Maya and realized that it was his brother’s hands that had done this to her, everything had changed. He felt like there was no ground under his feet and he was struggling to find a place to stand before he floated away.
 

God it was brutal. She’d been brutalized. Kellen couldn’t even imagine being anything but gentle with something as delicate as a woman. How could his brother do this?
 

He jumped when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw Damon’s name on the screen. “Shit,” he muttered. He just stared until the ringing stopped. He couldn’t talk to him. Not yet.

A moment later, he saw a voicemail message pop up. He listened. “Hey, man,” Damon said, sounding hungover, “thought you were just going to pick up my clothes. I gotta get to work. Where you at?”

And just like that, Kellen found his place to stand.
 

He was six and begging his twelve-year-old brother to let him have a turn at bat. “Come on, Damon, you promised!”

“Shut up, Kellen. Christ.”

Kellen kicked the dirt back behind home plate, behind the catcher. Damon was at bat. He swung once, twice…out.
 

“You’re out, Damon!” one of the kids shouted.

“You think I don’t know that, dipshit!” Then he rounded on Kellen. “You just won’t shut up, will you!”

Kellen shrugged. “Not my fault you can’t hit.”

“You little shithead!” Damon shoved Kellen. Kellen’s back hit the fence behind him, but he rebounded forward and shoved his brother back. Damon smacked him upside the head. Kellen charged him and was immediately thrown to the ground.

Damon landed punch after punch until his friends pulled him off. Kellen crawled to the fence. He collapsed on his belly, rallied, and reached one hand above his head, latching onto the chain-link.
 

“Hey!” Damon shouted.
 

Kellen looked back, saw that he was coming toward him with a bat in his hand, but couldn’t figure out how to react.

“Next time I tell you to shut up, you shut up.” And then Damon brought the bat down on Kellen’s outstretched arm.

His parents had brought him to this very hospital. The bat had fractured his arm.
His parents had grounded Damon for a month and made him do the chores Kellen couldn’t while his arm was in a cast. But in the end, they’d chalked it up to boys-will-be-boys.

There had been other incidents, though none so severe. And now, sitting here waiting for Maya to be examined, listening to his brother’s cavalier voicemail, Kellen’s eyes were finally opened.